Comparative study of the effectiveness of Na₂CO₃ and K₂CO₃ as base in methylation reaction on eugenol using dimethylcarbonate

Dimethyl carbonate (DMC) is an alternative replacement for dimethyl sulfate (DMS) and methyl halides which can be used in the methylation reaction of phenolic compounds. This comparative study will be conducted on the synthesis of eugenol to methyl eugenol using dimethyl carbonate (DMC) reagent with phase transfer catalyst (PTC) tetra butyl ammonium bromide (TBAB) and Na₂CO₃ and K₂CO₃ as base. The results obtained from the variation process of Na₂CO₃ and K₂CO₃ indicate that the use of both as bases provides high yield. However, higher yields are generated from the use of Na₂CO₃ as a base, which is 97.68% or in other words higher than K₂CO₃. The use of K₂CO₃, which is because Na₂CO₃ was harder or stronger than K₂CO₃. Even though it has used Na₂CO₃ but cannot reduce the amount of dimethylcarbonate used, the mole ratio of dimethylcarbonate with eugenol is 16: 1 to produce the most optimum methyl eugenol yield.